UCLA

This thesis examines the ways that the Ballet Nacional de Cuba (BNC) was enfranchised into the 1959 Cuban Revolution. By foregrounding the national projects of the Revolution and examining representations of the homosexual Cuban male experience, I explore how the internationally distinct Cuban ballet technique emerged in dialogue and in response to the new man (el hombre nuevo) and the new nation that was being forged. Part I explores the Cuban ballet technique as a repository of the socio-political conditions in which the ballet was nationalized at the start of the Revolution. Part II considers the symbolic register that BNC founder Alicia Alonso may evoke in relation to Revolution, both as a woman and as an institution. I conclude that not only is the BNC complicit in producing the Revolution, but that the form of ballet itself evolves into a postmodern--if not just revolutionary--hybrid of ballet.